Feb 28, 2025 By Jon Andreassi 3 min read

South Strabane Township supervisors voted this week to apply for a grant that would go toward funding a dog park.

The board of supervisors voted 3-2 to move ahead with the grant application to the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR). Supervisors Jeff Bull and George Rowand dissented.

South Strabane’s fire chief and assistant township manager Jordan Cramer said in a phone call Thursday that the township engineers, Pittsburgh-based KLH Engineers, will develop a cost estimate and write the grant. The proposed dog park would be at South Strabane Community Park on Floral Hill Drive.

A master plan for the dog park was completed for the township in 2021 by Pashek+MTR. The Pittsburgh firm estimated the park would cost the township more than $870,000 to construct, according to the summary of the plan available on South Strabane’s website.

According to Cramer, the cost is unlikely to be that high.

“What we have found through our research for it, given our public works would complete most of the work, the amount would be less,” Cramer said.

The resolution approved by supervisors states that “this ambitious cost estimate can be broken down into manageable pieces for the purposes of this grant application.” It will cost South Strabane $3,000 for KLH to prepare the application.

Cramer said the dog park would be broken into two spaces, one for small dogs and another for large dogs.

Regarding their votes against submitting an application, Rowand and Bull expressed that they were not given enough time or information to fully consider the issue.

“Most of the information we get, we get two days before the meeting. I have no definitive report saying that the majority of the people in the township wanted a dog park,” Rowand said.

Bull was also not convinced a dog park is a top priority for South Strabane residents, and said he has concerns about health and safety that were not addressed, either.

“Who is going to clean this up? It’s a health problem, for both dogs and other users of the park,” Bull said.

Bull added that he is concerned about issues such as dogs fighting, biting people and spreading illness.

Without having any firm numbers for how much the dog park could end up costing, or how much the grant application itself would be seeking from the DCNR, both Rowand and Bull did not feel comfortable voting for the resolution.

“A couple of supervisors said it was overinflated,” Rowand said of the cost estimate in the Community Park master plan. “On that I agree, but there still hasn’t been any pricing. There is no plan. I don’t feel comfortable voting on something unless I can see the direction that we’re going to be going.”